Do you meticulously plan email campaigns as a method of generating new business? Only to find that they consistently offer low response rates?

You may feel like you’re wasting your time, but with a little help you could benefit from one of the most lucrative forms of direct marketing. To do this, the answer is often to stop sticking with the same failed emails and just start testing them.

The easiest way to start testing your emails is to run an A/B split test: Split your contact records into two equal lists and send two slightly different versions of the same email to each. Things to try are:

Email subject lines: A study by Jupiter Research showed that 35% of recipients will open an email simply because of the content in the subject line; therefore, understanding which subject line style your recipients prefer is critical. Try breaking up your email subject lines to identify the headline that leads to the most open rates. Remember, your headline has to sell the click, so try to appeal to the reader’s self-interest.

Use of images: Most emails are delivered with images turned off, so it may be important to check whether including images will improve or decrease the effectiveness of the email. Finding the right balance between text and images is critical, as you’ll still want your emails to be readable and meaningful even when images are turned off.

HTML or plain text: Although HTML emails are more visually appealing, often a simple split test finds that plain text emails get a better response. This tends to vary based on the interests and demographics of your target customer.

Length of your email: People tend to read their emails in different ways. Some will read every word you type, but more and more will scan your emails in seconds. This makes your email length an interesting element to test! Both an email that is too short and too long can determine what the email has to offer, so you need to find which one appeals to your target audience. However, remember that regardless of its length, all emails need a compelling offer with a clear call to action to generate the highest ROI. Try adding multiple calls to action to engage readers and viewers alike.

Best time and day: Research has shown that the day and time you send an email can have a direct link to the attention span of the email recipient. Therefore, testing different times and days of the week to send emails will allow you to shed light on when your recipients are most likely to open your emails and take the desired action. Again, this will depend on your target market.

Landing Pages:So your email has done a good job: your potential customer is interested in your offer and has clicked through to your website. But what happens then? You can write a great electronic photo, but if your website fails to convert these visitors into paying customers, you have a problem. Click-through rates conversion may not be successful not because of the content of the email, but because of the landing page of your website.

We’ve found that non-e-shot content and long registration forms, for example, can discourage people from leaving their contact details, so it may be a good idea to test different versions of registration forms. . Remember, no one wants to spend hours filling in a lot of fields, so don’t ask too many questions, as this will put a lot of people off. Try testing different elements on your landing pages to find out what works best. I suggest starting with Google Website Optimizer.

Remember: only try one thing at a time, or you won’t know which change you made that really made a difference!

After tracking your results, you should be able to tell exactly what’s working and what’s not in your emails and start making any necessary improvements, both to your emails and landing pages.